Poo happens… or not

TMI Alert: cat poo and enema warning

About a week ago I took one of our cats to the vet after he seemed to be having problems pooing. He was crying, and bowing up, trying to take a squat in the oddest places.

Once at the vets’, the doc determined that Scruffy was definitely constipated and proceeded to give my cat an enema. Understand, Scruff doesn’t do well at the vets’ or with taking medicine ~ well, none of our pets do, actually. His chart has several frowny face stickers, and sometimes it takes both menfolk to help me dose him if he needs meds at home.

The Tech wore elbow length leather gloves and tried her best to constrain him. I really don’t blame him, being given an enema against your will would be upsetting. There was much gnashing of teeth and flashing of claws. In the end (pun intended) he eventually had to be sedated and two more enemas were given. Still no poo.

He was then sent home, and more stool softener prescribed for him ~ they were given orally, thankyouverymuch.

Over the next several days, I dosed him on laxatives, watched whether he went into the litter box, and tried to determine if he was eating and drinking. Poor cat was wailing, and crying, and growling at all of us, but since I thought he was doing his business, I took for granted his problem was working itself out.

This past weekend, he just seemed to get worse, and it became clear he really wasn’t pooing. So it was back to the vets’ on Tuesday morning. An X-ray was taken to find out what was happening, and apparently nothing was. The films showed there were three masses in Scruffy’s colon, each about the size of a golfball and just as solid.

The docs think Scruff has something called megacolon – where his intestines are extremely dilated and the muscles are unable to evacuate his colon. Doing a little Google research, I found that the majority of these cases (62%) have no known cause, and another 35% can be attributed to either physical or neurological deformities. I still feel awful, not knowing how long Scruff has been suffering with all this.

We left him with the vets, where they completely knocked him out and tried to clear the blockage. He went in at about 11 pounds, and when I picked him up that afternoon he was down to a little more than 9 pounds. You can do the math. He has to go back this morning for another round.

This condition is chronic, so we’ll have to make changes in his diet and put him on a regiment of laxatives and high fiber supplements. He’s also on a short term of antibiotics after all these invasive procedures, and a second med that is supposed to help strengthen his colon. We had to drive about 1.5 hours round-trip to a compounding pharmacy for this Rx. Apparently it’s tuna flavored to make it more palatable.

We’ll do what we have to do. He is part of our family and we want him to be happy and healthy. So please, keep good cat thoughts for Scruffy, and me… since the docs said I’ll probably have to learn how to give the furball enemas at home.

Submitted as part of Shell’s “Pour Your Heart Out” writing prompt at Things I Can’t Say. Please stop by to read the other posts, and give a little comment love.